Warning:

Don't eat anything that
youare not ABSOLUTELY sure is safe.

Consuming food from the wild is a source of great joy and satisfaction.
It can also kill you if you are not careful. Do not risk your
life with one casual mistake. Even mycologists make mistakes,
so don't experiment with anything that you have not very carefully
cross-checked with possible poisonous look-alikes. If you are
just starting to collect and eat wild mushrooms, don't rely solely
on books or websites for your information. Go hiking with experienced
experts, who can show you how to identify the important characteristics
of edible and poisonous mushrooms.

Don't use this website
as a field guide.

I am not a qualified mycologist, nor would I ever pretend to
be. I am presenting this information in order to share my enthusiasm
and love for something with which I am only a beginner. Humility
and caution are essential if you want to eat wild mushrooms without
getting sick or shortening your life. I encourage learning for
the sake of learning, so learn to identify the species that are
not edible, as well as the ones you can eat. Respect all of them.
And remember this most of all:

When in doubt, throw it
out!

When you are eating a mushroom for the first time, go slow.
Even the most prized edible mushrooms create adverse reactions
in some people. The same is true even with Agaricus bisporus,
the white button mushrooms you find at every market. When I try
a new edible mushroom, I generally sauté one specimen quite
thoroughly, and eat only a few bites. I will wait a few hours
before I eat the rest of the specimen, paying attention to any
digestive unrest. I typically wait at least 6-8 hours, or until
the following day, before I begin to eat the remainder of the
collection. This way I will be certain that I have no unpleasant
reactions before I eat a large quantity, or serve it to friends.

You should never serve wild mushroom dishes to friends without
telling them what they are eating. Don't be insulted if they don't
trust your judgement, and never pressure them into eating something
they don't want to. Again, even "safe" mushrooms can
make some people sick, so prepare your meals with caution and
full disclosure.

You can also make yourself sick if you eat large amounts of
any mushroom, including ones that you have eaten happily in the
past. Even the safest edible mushrooms contain numerous complex
organic compounds that may be difficult to break down in the digestive
system. You should cook with them in moderate quantities, as an
accent in your meal, to avoid overloading your system.

Sometimes, scientists change their assessment about whether
a certain mushroom species is "safe." Sometimes, edible
species can intergrade with genetically similar poisonous species.
For example, some reports claim that intermediary gradations of
Amanita species can slowly cause long term liver damage. Whether
or not this is true, caution remains our best friend!

I personally feel that you should never serve mushrooms raw,
even ones that you buy in the store. Raw mushrooms are essentially
indigestable, and can cause flatulence or even diarhea. Some studies
have even found trace amounts of carcinogens in raw samples of
the innocuous button mushroom Agaricus bisporus. Such compounds
tend to break down when cooked, however. Cooking also appears
to render edible several species that are generally considered
toxic, such as Boletus satanis and Gyrometra esculenta.
You should not start collecting these poisonous species with the
idea that they'll be safe once cooked, but it's nice to know that
cooking can help protect you in rare cases if you make a stupid
mistake. In summary, never make stupid mistakes, and always
cook your mushrooms.

As a final warning, consider very carefully the environment
from which you collect your mushrooms. Avoid polluted areas, busy
roadsides, trash heaps, and gardens where people have used pesticides
and chemical fertilizers. Mushrooms can collect and concentrate
chemicals from the soil around them. Thus, urban mushrooms can
become toxic from human activities, accumulating pesticides and
heavy metals such as lead and mercury that might prove far more
harmful than the mushroom itself. For several years after the
nuclear accident at Chernobyl in western Russia, wild mushrooms
throughout eastern Europe and Scandinavia contained measurable
concentrations of radioactive isotopes, and European governments
recommended strongly against collecting them.

This last point leads me to a different concern altogether,
which is preservation of habitat. Mushrooms thrive in healthy
woodlands, and humans thrive when they have plenty of healthy
wilderness nearby to enjoy. As my passion for observing nature
grows, I can't help but notice how increasingly difficult it can
be to locate undisturbed natural places. My obsession with mushrooms
has taken me out into open spaces more than ever before, and my
respect for the wilderness keeps growing. I am increasingly aware
of how quickly we humans are destroying natural habitats throughout
the world. The destruction of wilderness reduces the diversity
of species in all kingdoms of life - plant, animal, fungus and
more. We are all responsible for contributing to the destruction
of habitats through our hunger for luxury and carelessness in
our consumption. Mycophiles can do their small part to help preserve
what little wilderness we have left, even in our collecting habits,
if not with our miniscule political and economic voice. When we
collect mushrooms for the table, we should be careful to leave
the forest duff in good condition, so as not to disturb mycelial
growth. We should also collect only what we can use. This caution
and respect for the forest environment can lead to several good
consequences for mushroom hunters. First, we get to experience
the joy of walking through an undisturbed forest; second, we'll
be able to return to more mushrooms in the future; and third,
no-one can see where we've been, so they won't be able to find
our secret patch of boletes or chantrelles !